Not all witches get along. Some witches, for reasons all their own, will attack other witches. Sometimes it’s for power play, sometimes it’s for self defense, and sometimes it’s just immaturity (though the latter is the least worrisome). For whatever reason it is started, it can become a problem. Fighting another witch isn’t something that’s normally taught anymore, but it’s a topic that needs to be discussed because it happens. When I first began, I couldn’t find any information about witch fights, other than petty gossip. I knew better than to think witches wouldn’t fight one another with magic. Your technique will change depending if you’re on offense or defense, but I’ll give a basic layout of approaches. The first thing is to neutralize whatever the witch is attacking with. If it’s a spell, break it. If it’s a familiar or a spirit, trap it. You need to get rid of the problem, but try to be discreet about it. Don’t alert them to the fact that it’s broken. Then, you need some revved up wards. Spike it with red ochre (good substitute for blood, for the more squeamish). Use iron and silver. Hang mirror shards in a nearby tree. Hide charms that will break or return spells sent at you. Remember that some witches play very dirty. Keep wards on the things you love. Put protection on things you don’t want them touching. Set up spells that will trick and confuse them. Put a glamour on your front door so that it looks like an endless, winding tunnel. Enchant your whole property to be, for all intents and purposes, invisible to those who have ill intent towards you (try burying some compact mirrors). Make dolls of yourself that their attacks will find and be absorbed by. Maybe you want to retaliate, or maybe you’re the one starting the fight (or finishing it). If you’re attacking, you need to render the other witch vulnerable to your attacks. Throw away the whole ‘bind their magic’ crap, because if you’re dealing with a strong witch, it either won’t work or snap like cheap cord. What do they work with? The dead? Perfect, send spells filled with garlic and angelica root. If they work with water, send fiery spells their way. If they’ve got all of their bases covered, you’ll need to find another method. Be creative. Maybe they aren’t very perceptive to the subtler things around them. Send your spirit out to infiltrate their space and plant spectral hexes.
If you’re dealing the blows, make sure not to make yourself too vulnerable to your enemy. Don’t send your spirit out only to trip alarms and get yourself stuck. Be subtle about everything. Sometimes flashy is good, but only when you’re trying to spook someone. If you’re both skilled witches fighting one another, you need to be sneaky.
As a general rule, I would advise you to stay away from witch fights. Don’t start magical fights if you don’t have to. You might send a hex to the wrong person and they could turn around and witch slap you to the ground.
Don’t start fights for no reason, but here’s advice from someone who’s had way too much experience:
Target weaknesses, like my friend here has mentioned. Don’t be afraid to play dirty. This is witchcraft, not sparring. Scare them. Fear is the best thing to attack with. If you’re dealing with a fearless witch, scare people around them. Emotions power spells real well. Have a lot of small blasts spread out to conceal a huge one. Aka send small hexes and jinxes their way to make sure their alarms are tripped and their defenses are weakened, then cast huge heavy spell, then more small ones. Your protections need to be T I G H T. No, tighter than what you’re thinking right now. Layers are important. Don’t rely on deities or spirits. Like don’t. Learn everything you can about them and turn their allies against them.
All of this ^ And one more addition. If you’re up against a coven of witches, you need to turn them against one another. Send a hex to one of them, but make it look like a coven mate did it. Give them nightmares of each other. Give them visions.
I too learned all of this from too much experience. Witch sparring can be fun. But witch fights, the real and dirty kind, are a mess for everyone involved.
I’ve luckily never had to go up against an actual strong coven, but I’ve dealt with small groups of witches before and let me tell you. Turning them against each other and watching them going on a witch hunt is the funniest thing I’ve experienced. I’m glad the whole aggresive streak on Tumblr’s gone down though. I remember when I first joined everyone was throwing curses at everyone (tarot drama omfg) but now most people seem to simply throw petty insults haha
One of my favorite ways of calling a storm. Reeds tied into a whisk. I whisk the water while visualizing the kind of storm I want. I also keep a water library that includes water from different storms to help form the right kind of storm.
When I’m done, I use the whisk to flick the water in the air like rain, much like the old broom and bucket folk magic spell. It’s better if done outside, I think, but I usually end up doing most of my storm calling inside just due to convenience.
This particular set up was done on a night when I wanted to influence an already existing storm system to get here faster.
I was taught a method for summong winds and rain and that was to get a bottle and blow into it. You say a prayer, call the four winds and you blow into the bottle at an angle that makes a very low note. If you want to summon rain, add rice and then the breath kinda shakes the rice. It was a method that worked really well for some reason. You’d blow into it, the next day there’d be rain.
It was a part of magick to whistle up the wind, and we all know that whistling summons spirits and demons and that’s why you never whistle at night otherwise a spirit will come home with you.
If you were ever involved in girlscouts, look up “cursed girlscout songs”. There’s one, Johnny Appleseed’s Grace, that we sang at a campout despite our leader telling us not to, and we had a thunderstorm for 3 days The “official” reason that particular song is no longer taught is because it’s “inappropriate”, but it’s literally a grace And only like 4 lines, there’s nothing inappropriate about it
I think, oftentimes, we are prone to emphasize the cruelty of the witch. A misplaced prayer, perhaps, that our cruelty will be what makes us strong.
In my experience, it is quite the opposite. Softness and cunning are the ritual swords of the powerful sorcerer. To be one of virtue, of strong adurand stronger word. Those who have made themselves, or more accurately been made, up into elementals. Clouds and mountains, a whitethorn, those with eyes of fire and others who reflect the stars.
Knowing yourself, and your craft, and cultivating the spark of yourself and your name… It will get you so much further in the world of spirits than the boisterous acts of wickedness this community often encourages.
Using divinatory tools to connect with spirits, for beginners
These are my beliefs. They are not universal. YMWV.
Provide spirits offerings which feed them. This means things that give off spiritual energy, like candles, incense, and especially food.
Spirits have to burn their energy to manipulate your tools. It isn’t fair to continuously request spirit communication without giving anything back to them.
This is also why you can get one or two good answers a week but the rest are weird - the spirits are too drained to interact with you. Feed them!
(Areyou the one getting super drained? Your own energy is being used to work the divinatory tool. Take more breaks, communicate less often, and spend more time thinking about communication and applying the wisdom and information you received).
Tarot, Lenormand, and Oracle Cards
Yes/no tends to work poorly for most people. Instead ask simple and direct questions like:
How do you feel about our relationship at this time?
What should I do about X situation?
Is there any advice you want to give me at this time?
Avoid very broad questions. “What should I do?” is very broad. You then have to figure out which part of your life the card is referring to. Keep things focused.
Pendulums
Can do yes/no questions, but they can also point towards things for you, such as what area of a room a shrine should be built in, or which spell ingredient is best for your next project.
Every question you ask drains energy from someone/thing. Either your energy, energy stored in your tool, or the spirit’s energy.
Avoid playing 20 questions with a pendulum when pulling a single oracle card could answer the question.
Casting Lots
Excellent for questions of closeness and relationships between things (not only you and the spirit; but also the spirit’s relationship with certain domains, or their preferences in offerings, etc).
Try these methods:
Choose a small object, such as a coin, button, or allspice berry. Dedicate it to the spirit. (Fill it with energy to make it easier for the spirit to manipulate it!)
Drop the spirit’s object in order to see where it falls. For example, if you have multiple plants you want to start studying, write each one down on a piece of paper in a circle, and drop the spirit’s object in the middle. See which one it lands closest to.
This technique is helpful to avoid asking a million yes/no questions in a row with a pendulum.
